A homogeneous blend of creativity, rationality and curiosity, I'm Saloni Luktuke, a multi-disciplinary designer. Trained in Product, UX & Strategy, I'm currently collaborating with startups & companies in my hometown, Pune, India. Over the years, I've developed a keenness in conversations and I thrive on making sense of seemingly unrelated connections, drawing patterns, understanding relationships and identifying opportunities. Feel free to connect via LinkedIn / Instagram or any other social media channel you find me on and let's discuss design & business over a cup of strong coffee! :)

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience? MDS was a perfect amalgamation of business, management and design with a right mix of theoretical and practical modules, paired with the opportunity of working on live projects with some of the most renowned Italian companies across various sectors. With colleagues hailing from all parts of the world, it was one of the most multi-ethnic and culturally enriching experiences which broadened my global perspective. The MDS experience ensured a systemic and strategic mindset and nurtured a sense of circular, end to end thinking that is pivotal in approaching and analyzing any problem.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives

Collaborative

Insightful

Interdisciplinary

Challenging

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

The 15-month experience including the Milanese life, short bursts of espressos, networking and living the Italian design scene is something I would definitely recommend to anyone aiming to chart their career on the cusp of design and business.

“Knowledge is like having light inside your brain. The more you have it, the clearer you will see and farther will be your vision. Bring the light from everyone together and it can illuminate a person, a society, a city, a nation, the world.”

This analogy has always been the guiding principle for me as an accessory designer, a visual merchandiser, a concept artist and a visual designer across my experiences through companies like adidas, Broadcast2World and Accenture. And it is the same principle that guided me to develop myself as a Strategic Designer. My modus operandi is always to reach the most fundamental bits of an information; deconstruct it, and then put together the pieces in a manner that make sense for everyone and create value for the greater good. Following that same thought I am currently working on developing an entrepreneurial idea that started in the beautiful south of Italy - Martina Franca & Ostuni; a service that helps women feel safer while traveling alone in cities.

On a personal front I am very enthusiastic about ‘Learning and Making’. I am not bound by specific subjects of interests. My enthusiasm ranges from astronomy to world war II, from ancient world civilizations to how stuff works, from human behavioural psychology to learning how to make augmented reality apps and a lot more.

In context of the above analogy, I believe the more you learn, the more light you have, higher is the probability that you will be able to see other people in your light; #empathy (cause human beings cannot function in dark). And I believe it is one of the most important and strongest ways of not just building solutions that are right, but building communities with values that work together in building these right solutions.

‘I am a torch-bearer; spreading light for myself and others. Design and Strategy are my tools, my torch in this mission.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

The MDS has been a collection of experiential epiphanies for me. When you know a lot of concepts, but then you get to experience them and understand their real meaning. Empathy has been the strongest value that I experienced and amplified through well-defined theory and practical exercises at Poli.Design. Empathy allowed me to develop a Global Perspective on different subjects around me, but more importantly I developed a global perspective of myself, with classmates and colleagues from nearly 20 different nationalities across the duration of the course. And this development helped me become better at understanding and defining the problems and solutions; for today and tomorrow. But I must emphasise, what brings together the best of experience at MDS is Team Work; collaborating together the best of ideas, experiences and capabilities from across the world in a highly challenging environment.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives

Become a Consultant of the Future

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

I would recommend this course for anyone who wishes to explore the importance of Design and Strategy; how it is, and will help enable the ‘Change’ that the industries across the globe are going through. The course will teach you to become a part of this ‘Change’ and endow you with the know-hows of doing it; the beautiful mix of Design & Management.

BIO: “Less is more” by Mies Van Der Rohe. Simplicity is awesome, it’s just my personal philosophy of life.

I’m Giada Desandrè from Turin, Italy. I’m a young designer fuelled by passion, curiosity and thirst for knowledge. I work as Account Manager and Designer at Nextatlas, an innovative trend forecasting company that offers brands a new way to identify emerging consumer trends and inspires the creative process by using finely tuned algorithms and AI. I’m really proud to be part of such a stimulating and motivating work environment, where I can challenge myself and my skills.

In my spare time I practice pilates, I enjoy going hiking with my friends, walking in the nature and free hand drawing.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

MDS taught me how to analyze projects from several perspectives, from design to business, from communication to management. I could explore the meaning of “innovation” and “strategy”, and I learn how to effectively apply them to the design process. Furthermore, thanks to the Trend Forecasting course I took, I understood the importance for brands and agencies of identifying emerging consumer trends for their business planning, and thanks to the teacher Elena Marinoni I had the possibility to know Nextatlas and start my internship there.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives

Challenge, Ambition, System, Enthusiasm.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionists?

I would strongly recommend this experience to those students who want to enhance their knowledge about design and want to understand how it can be enriched with management principles. MDS encourages sharing of ideas and experiences with other professionists whose backgrounds, skills and culture are completely different . This international environment is the core value of the master.

BIO: Pour 1 part design, 1 part mathematics, top it up to the brim with curiosity, add ice and sugar, and shake- you'll have something you should positively not drink-and-drive after i.e. me.

I work as an Innovation and Design Thinking consultant at EY Italy. I moonlight as part of a multidisciplinary consulting, 21ID, that I'd started in 2017. We help startups and incumbents create innovative business models, identify product-market fit, design product-service-systems and define and execute go-to-market strategies (if this interests you, let's talk on LinkedIn). I can often be found petting cats, drinking filter coffee and going stupidly fast on motorcycles.

I dream of a world where every good idea gets to grow up to be an innovation. I've believed I had the eye for design and the head for business and MDS is where it all came together for me.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

MDS is a conglomeration of subjects, professors and colleagues unlike any other academic program out there. With a variety of modules from Design and Management interlaced with live workshops, MDS allows you to achieve the right balance of the creative and the rational, a truly difficult balance to find. I am indebted to the course for having imbibed in me a "Strategic Design Mindset" - that allows one to manifest innovation practically at will.

Outline the MDS experience according to four keywords or key adjectives

Steve Jobs x Don Draper

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

If you were looking to do an MBA, steer clear of MDS- here you might actually learn a thing or two. Like most other things in life, MDS will give you as much as you are willing to give it. So immerse yourself in a year of poring through strategy readings (psst, get an HBR subscription), chasing after professors, asking "stupid" questions in class and jumping up everytime you hear the word "Innovation". It'll all be worth it in the end, I promise.

Name: Silvia Catalina Malaver Jimenez

Country: Colombia

BIO: I´m an Industrial and Strategic Designer (MDS), I live in Bogotá, Colombia with emphasis in Business Development, Marketing & Sales of Office Furniture, Architectural, and Customer-focused Product Design for several industry markets

In my career I have achieved different awards as the first place in design contests like PAD 2005 (award for architecture and design); I have been a product, furnishing and interior designer of turnkey projects, in the same way I have worked and I know the different Colombian arts and crafts working hand in hand with artisans and architects of my country, and specified for furniture companies international level supporting them in entering the Colombian market.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

The master's degree in Strategic Design has allowed me to project my career designing and generating strategies and value propositions to the companies for which I have worked and I´m working, it has been an enriching personal and professional experience that has allowed me to grow, reinvent myself and face new professional challenges

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Innovation

Strategy

Design

Adaptability

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

I would recommend it for people who have a background in design to support their professional career; this master allows them to have a better vision and strategies for the development of projects, I believe that this master's degree provides tools to open the job spectrum of any professional with interest in have an integral growth for their careers.

BIO: Born to play Lego, imagine paradoxical technologies and possible futures. I am a strategist and service designer at Continuum, where I deal with redesigning meaningful future consumption scenarios, and exploring and analysing consumer and cultural trends. I thrive on making connections across seemingly disparate areas, solving problems using a balance of strong analytical skills and intuition. My main area of interest is the research and development that leads to the innovation of products, services and businesses.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

Diving back in into the world of creation after a career change is not always an easy thing to do. The MDS was for me the right move to reapproach the design territory and to pair it with the previous experience in the business universe. The diverse background of both teachers and fellow students exposed me to different mindsets and approaches and helped me to enrich my skillset. The project based courses proved to be great opportunity to test what it means be a strategic designer in the real world as well as provided many networking occasions.

Outline the MDS experience according to four keywords or key adjectives:

Dynamic: You have little time to stand still. Lots of projects to work on, information to absorb and people to meet.

Channeling: The course is well structured and manages to direct you towards specific goals

Prismatic: Despite its focusing structure, the course still manages to retain a diversity in terms of subjects covered that exposes you to many different worlds and ideas.

Motivating: Learning how design is not necessarily just about objects, services or cool graphics but it can also be about orchestrating different levels of knowledge within an organisation to generate innovative value gives you a different perspective about your career and opens up new options.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionsts?

Everyday we were in the classroom with what became a little family by the end. The insights and the skills I’ve learnt are going to stay with me as much as the friendships I’ve made. Both humanly and career wise the course is definitely something I would recommend to professionals interested in a career at the intersection between design, strategy and innovation.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

Pursuing the MDS provided me with some of the most inspirational experiences in both my personal and professional life. It opened the doors to opportunities that were critical in my career and helped me enter the world of Design and Innovation consulting. It also allowed me to exchange knowledge with people from a great variety of backgrounds, and experience life in one of the most stimulating cities in the world.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Multidisciplinary, Holistic, Inspiring, Eye-opening.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

Yes. I think MDS is a great opportunity for anyone who is passionate about both design and strategy and is looking to pursue a career path that is grounded at the intersection of both. It is also for those curious, open minded and excited to get immersed into a truly inspiring culture.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

As an engineer my previous mindset was technology driven, from the solution or technology to the market and consumers, it was factual and constrained. The MDS complemented my mindset, by approaching the market from the opposite perspective, looking the other way around, from the consumer to the market, by empathizing with the user and understanding his/hers/its pain points to then deliver a solution, using techniques such as: consumer journey, personas, ethnography, touchpoints, fast prototyping, business model canvas, types of innovation, mystery shopping, product/service design, all hands on, from academic teachings to workshops for various companies. The experience with the teachers, in Milan and worldwide colleagues enriched my life personally and professionally, now I’m senior project manager at Whirlpool where I came for my internship… I think it talks by itself on how it contributed to my career.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives

Crystallizing and Generative, mindset changer, open mind

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

No doubt I would recommend. Either for a designer who wants to immerge on the business side of projects, for engineers to learn the design tools and user centric approach or for business and managerial personnel who needs to understand the design process for/and value offer creation and development it is really game changer.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience? The Master gave me a lot of complimentary knowledge as a designer and even as an entrepreneur. Besides the fact that one of the workshops allowed me to start a project with the packaging producer, Sirap Group, which later offered me an internship and now I'm there fulltime as Trade Marketing Manager of Business Development.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:Design, Innovation, Business, Strategy.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist? I would suggest it to anyone with a design background wanting to broaden their view in management, business, innovation or just thinking about being an entrepreneur.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

The MDS experience has definitely contributed to my actual life. It opened my mind to the world of innovation and gave me the right skills and contacts to start my career from where I wanted to! The master gave me a wide knowledge in many aspects of design and innovation management, from the marketing to the project management. Skills that I’m using in my actual working position.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Ambition, International environment, Challenge, Teamwork.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

Yes. It is an investmen that will pay off almost immediately, not only with a professional know-how, but with its international network of people that will bring you ideas, different approaches and the widest cultural richness.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

The MDS experience allowed me to complement my background in Visual Design and illustration with management and innovation knowledge. The program allowed me to transition from Visual Designer, into a Strategic Design Consultant. Now I work on the intersection between business, design and technology and have the opportunity to play a key role in the strategic decision making of digital services and products from ideation to implementation.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Interdisciplinary, Global, Challenging, Inspiring.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

I would highly recommend this experience to designers looking to take their career to the next level. Not only do you get exposure to a great array of critical thinking skills and tools that are in really high demand in the current global market, but you also get to get to put them in practice and test them out, quickly prototype, iterate and co-create on real projects with real clients.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

It has been a starting point for developing my career as a consultant. Strategic Design is way of thinking, a mind set, that provides a very different approach to company’s problems, and it has help me to add value and differentiate myself from the rest of the traditional consultancies firms. I am currently working both freelance and as an employee, and I’ve been able to apply different tools and method I learnt at MDS in both areas. The consultancy job is of course more creative, because each project and each client is unique; and as an analyst in the area of strategic planning, in an insurance group firm, I can always add new ways of seeing things during the strategic planning process.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Revealing, Exiting, Challenging, Fun.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

I would, but is very important for anyone who is interest in doing it, that is not like you will get a job as strategic designer afterwards, you have to create that job, that position, that profile. It’s a journey you take, and time and experience will show you, after some years maybe, how much it was worth it.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience? At MDS Program I learned about design value and its strategic role to make changes in today’s and tomorrow’s economy. I was able to use my experience as industrial designer and the knowledge I got in the MDS program in order to propose changes in industrial design education at TEC and explore unattended areas where design research can generate opportunities in the Latin American context for the creative economy, industrial designers and communities. MDS program let me experience networking between excellent colleagues who became from different countries and backgrounds.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?I have to say that I already suggested this program to my colleagues and I will continue suggesting it: it’s an experience every designer (or no-designer) must live in order to change the world perspective of design value.

Name: Chattip Tanjamroon

Country: Thailand

Professional profile: Design Strategist / Service Designer at RDM strategist

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

During my studies in MDS, I attended many workshops and completed various academic projects which related to the Italian culture and a variety of renowned Italian companies. Moreover I had the great opportunity to do an internship with an Italian company in London and completed a most interesting project, using the experiences, methodologies, and skills that I learned to develop new business.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

The MDS experience provided me with many strategic skills that are still valuable to me in my day-to-day work - working in a branding/packaging design agency it is essential to have a strategic insight into design. Also, I have had the chance to meet people from all over the world who have worked and have had experience in many diverse environments, thus enabling me to see many different aspects of design and learn how to collaborate with people that have different disciplines.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives:

Insightful, Joyful, Professional, Inspiring.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionist?

I would definetly suggest to other professionals to take the MDS course, especially if they want to learn how to become a different kind of designer in today’s world - what most designer lack of, in my opninion, is the capacity to include strategic skills and meaning in what they do. Also, I would reccomend it for those who want to learn how to think as a designer, and not just be one.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

MDS is not just a Specializing Master for me, but also an intense experience of international way of design thinking, value offering. I could tell: MDS made me to improve the way of applying my engineering thinking and skills on what I love to do. "Problem solving" by not just designing a product, but also the way of thinking and improving the business. For five years I have been working for improving an Italian Brand's selling's in TR supporting with new strategies, in some points I find myself using the technical and practical experiences I got during my MDS.

Outline the MDS experience according four keywords or key adjectives.

The keywords could be: thinking out of box, problem solving, innovative behavior for every kind of design, real experience.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

Whoever has the experience for design and management, I would extremely recommend this Specializing Master to have a bigger perspective of thinking, a different understanding of design, to saturate the way of value offering both for business and product design.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

MDS was a turning point in my career. I had a degree in graphic design, and even though I loved the idea of creation, I knew this was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life: I felt there was something missing... That’s when the Specializing Master entered: it showed me how to connect consumers with ideas that really mattered, with services, products, projects that could really change their lives. Now I work in one of the five most innovative companies in Latin America, doing what I really came out to do.

Outline the MDS experience according some keywords or key adjectives.

The most meaningful adjectives could be: exhaustive (in a good way), captivating, exciting work-full.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

I would very well advise this course for anyone that consider the possibility of using the final user/consumer perspective as a starting point.

Which kind of contribution has provided to your career the MDS experience?

MDS nurtured in me a sense of questioning and trying out new means of interacting with people. It exposed me to some of the most relevant question being asked by consumers and platforms that serve them such as sustainable practices and end to end thinking.

Outline the MDS experience according some keywords or key adjectives.

My experience at MDS could be best summed up with:

Holistic: The modules, projects as well as everyday interactions exposed me to a whole world of people & ideas. The course is designed in a way that is both didactic as well as practical and prepared me to participate in projects and conversations not just within but also outside the usual design processes.

Collaborative: I was in classroom filled with people from all over the world with very different backgrounds. Working together with them in a way was / is very similar to working in a large international organization such as Adidas. It prepared me to collaborate and work with ideas that are often not similar to mine but highly enriching ultimately leading to a unique set of solutions.

Eye opening: The experience of working with broad topics such as sustainable / culturally relevant as well as technologically advanced products / solution systems prepared me for a work environment that is ever changing and expects answers as well as participation from every area (including design) of an organization.

Would you suggest this experience to other professionals?

Ultimately the experience, including living in Milan, networking with a larger group of creatives within and outside the Politecnico is an experience that I can only recommend to anyone wanting to boost their careers in a creative setting.